| LEGISLATIVE
ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO
Official
Record of Debate
(Hansard)
ANNIVERSARY
OF RWANDAN GENOCIDE
April
7, 2004
Mr
Ted Arnott (Waterloo-Wellington): Last Saturday morning,
as is my normal routine, I was reading through a stack
of my weekly newspapers. I eventually got around to
reading the Globe and Mail. In the Globe and Mail, there
was an article that seared into the core of my being,
a vision of unspeakable horror. I would expect that
some members of the House would have read the same article.
But if you haven't, I'd like to relate briefly some
of its contents.
The
article told the story of Athanasie Mukarwego, a young
mother who was a high school teacher in Kigali in 1994.
On April 6, just 10 years ago yesterday, she heard the
news that the president of Rwanda had been killed in
a plane crash. There was an ominous sense that immediately
went through her community, a sense that something terrible
was about to happen. Over the next 100 days the world
was to witness again the atrocity of genocide, in stark
contrast to the beautiful and scenic African land of
Rwanda.
1400
Within
days, Athanasie's husband, along with the other men
in her community, was brutally tortured and killed because
he was a Tutsi and for no other reason. His national
identity card became his death warrant because it indicated
he was a Tutsi. The bloodthirsty Hutu killers were not
satisfied with killing the Tutsi men. In fact, later
it became apparent that Hutu men who refused to participate
in the killings were themselves hacked to death with
machetes, as barbaric and revolting as that sounds.
After
her husband was killed, Athanasie was subjected to the
most dehumanizing torture that a woman could face. The
rampaging Hutu mobs used her as a sex slave for 89 days,
repeatedly assaulting her in her own bedroom while her
children were crying in the next room. Athanasie was
a Christian and is today. Understandably, while trying
to endure through this ordeal, she questioned her faith.
She asked herself, "Does God exist? We were always
taught that God loves us. He would not have let me live
through this. Clearly, he does not love me."
In
the end, it was her love of her children that helped
her to want to live to see the end. When the mob was
finished with her, after 89 days, they took her outside
intending to shoot her. One of the soldiers said to
her, "Speak for the last time." She did, and
she remembers every word she said: "When I see
you, your youth, your strength, I pity you. You could
use it to protect those who need protection, but instead
you use it to kill. We are innocents. There is not even
a stick in my house. No one has ever received so much
as a nasty look in my house, and yet you will kill me.
The others who died were innocent, and we will all go
to another life, one you won't have."
They
said to each other, "Why isn't this woman afraid?"
She answered, "All who live must die." Her
courage and humanity in the face of death stunned the
killers, and they couldn't do what they had set out
to do. Perhaps they finally felt revulsion at the blood
on their hands. They let her go, and 10 years later
she has been able to tell her story. In the end, as
the article says, this is a hopeful story. Athanasie
feared contracting HIV and was certain she would because
of the prevalence of that horrible disease in Africa,
but she didn't and her health was eventually restored.
This
former high school teacher now serves as a coordinator
in a village called Hope, counselling women like her
who were raped during the genocide. In Rwanda, there
is peace between the Hutus and Tutsis. The national
identity cards no longer identify people as Hutu or
Tutsi but simply as Rwandan. First steps which represent
national reconciliation are occurring, even as those
responsible for inciting this act of genocide are being
held accountable for their crimes.
As
we reflect on the events of 10 years ago, I am reminded
of an old adage, and perhaps I'm paraphrasing it: The
only way evil can triumph is if good people are indifferent
and do nothing. The Western world, the United Nations,
the European Community, the Canadian government, the
Canadian people, we in this House, what did we do during
these infamous 100 days when evil reigned supreme in
central Africa and 800,000 people were being slaughtered?
Where was our expression of outrage? Where was our moral
indignation? Where was our support for General Dallaire,
who requested reinforcements and a revised mandate to
come to the aid of the victims? What did we do? Thinking
of the history of mankind, what will we do the next
time this happens?
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